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After meeting three times this summer, the industry-wide
Beef Checkoff Task Force drafted four recommendations to
enhance the Beef Checkoff program:
- The beef
referendum process should be revised to allow producers
to petition every five years for a referendum on continuing
the Checkoff. A petition signed at county offices by 10
percent of producers will trigger USDA to conduct a vote
within a year.
- The per-head
Checkoff rate should be adjusted to $2 to assure strong
demand-building initiatives in the future and to offset
20 years of inflation. The 50-50 split between state beef
councils and the Beef Board would remain the same.
- The Federation
of State Beef Councils should prioritize enhancing its
identity to strengthen beef industry stakeholder understanding
of the federation. Options such as changing its name from
The Federation Division to The Beef Checkoff Federation
could be considered.
- Any reference
to the charter date of established national non-profit,
industry-governed organizations should be eliminated from
definition (1260.113c) in the Beef Promotion and Research
Order to make the Checkoff more inclusive.
The
recommendations now will be presented to national and state
beef organizations.
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